[CentOS] Re: Ole Fossils [ was Re: ls and rm: "argument list too long"]

[David G. Mackay]

On Fri, 2008-10-24 at 18:09 -0700, Bill Campbell wrote:

> The Burroughs Medium Systems mainframes I worked on allowed one to store
> the program on disk, then compile with modifications in a card deck, using
> the sequence numbers to replace or insert lines from the cards.  There were
> options to create a new disk file with the patches included, and to
> resquence the source on disk.  Typically there were several card desks in a
> drawer which could be loaded to recreate the patched disk file by loading
> them in sequence which was fine until the disk file was resequenced when it
> was time to punch new cards from the disk file to replace the original deck
> and patches.  Punch cards were far more reliable backup than mag tape and
> in a pinch one could read the printing on the card to fix a badly damaged
> card (it was amazing how fast a card reader jam could turn the first card
> into an accordian fold).

Then came CANDE, TD8xx terminals, and editing on your head-per-track
disk.  Ah for the good old days, when men were men, and memory upgrades
involved fork lifts.

Dave